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Re:Three African-American Youth targeted at SOA Protest

Author

Cliff Willmeng

Date Created

21 Nov 2000

Date Edited

21 Nov 2000 08:34:30 PM

Rating

Current rating: 0

An Open Letter To All Who Attended the November 19 Protest Against the US Army School of the Americas:

My name is Cliff Willmeng and I work with the Chicago Direct Action Network. I have recently talked with the one of the two authors of the IMC story detailing what appears to be a very racially motivated attack on three Comumbus youths. (The story can be found on the Atlanta IndyMedia web site at: atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3 )I have been told by her that she has a hard copy of a tape-recorded interview with the three youths that supports this. She is going to be at our Wednesday night DAN meeting and will be playing the tape for our group then. Apparently we will be getting contact information for the youths from her as well.

We are aiming to collect any and all information from people that were witness to this event. Most specifically we are looking for:

-Video of Sunday's rally. At around three or four o'clock a woman came up onto the stage, disturbed and hesitant, and related her witness of the police detaining these youths. That she related this story to our vigil gives indication to the very good possiblity that an injustice may have occured. Many people including myself were there and heard her talk, and her oral testimony could be very important

-The identity and contact information of this woman and anyone else who can produce evidence of the nature of this incident

-Statements from anyone who was there at the time and may have seen or heard anything that could help us better understand what occured

Today we attempted to contact the Washington DC SOAWatch office but were unsuccessful. I personally talked to Father Roy in Columbus GA., and was told the story about the youths being relatives of people working on the base. This indeed may be true for whatever it is worth. It needs to be said, however, that neither I nor Roy currently have any information to confirm this.

We intend to see this through, to make the truth be known, and to have real justice be served if we find any evidence that what took place was essentially a racially based attack. As guests of Columbus and the people who live their lives there, we owe it to them too get to the very bottom of this. Repression is alive and well at home as well as abroad, and as a movement that claims to seek justice, igoring these charges would be ananthema to our mission. We thank anyone who can help us in advance.